I thought of something else while rereading my post today. I think forces in a battle exercise should suffer the same type of penalty that your ships suffer when you can see a hostile NPR. However, the penalty in the exercise should not be as bad as the penalty in the real thing -- only 50% or 75% of the penalty should apply. The stress of treating the exercise like it's real still causes people to mess up, but in the back of the crew members' minds they know they're not actually in life-threatening danger. The amount of the Awaiting Confirmation penalty (or whatever it's called) is another thing that can be implemented in many ways, like allowing adjustable rates or choices in the Exercise window, but I don't believe that's necessary. A flat percentage should work fine.
While this isn't the main place for error reporting, I may as well post it now as it relates to other suggestions. I've managed to zoom out so far in one system (the scale reads 24 LY) that anything I try to do in that system results in an error 6 Overload message. Any attempt to zoom in or center the camera on anything creates an Overload *error* and crashes Aurora. Attempts to do anything else give an Overload *warning* and then perform the action, to an extent. I can zoom out further, but cannot zoom back in. I looked for a way to directly set the zoom level in a system, but could not find one. I had hoped such a setting would solve the issue. I tried other things too, but they did not work.
So, my suggestions:
- Add a way to directly set the zoom/scale of a system from the F9 System Information menu, Task Group menu, or regular map.
- Add a line to the F12 Task Group menu that says where a task group is currently located: include at minimum the system, but hopefully also whether they're sailing In Space or orbiting a body (and list what body it is). Currently I need to click the Center On Task Group checkbox and then see where they are, then uncheck that box and continue.
- I'd like to have a Tandem design window where I can design missiles, turrets, and anything in the Design window, and see these three things side-by-side. That is, I would like a window that has missiles design, turret design, and Design design right next to each other, keeping the windows the way they are now. As the windows are now, that MIGHT be just the right size to take up most of the screen. Alternatively, one window with large tabs to easily swap between the various system design windows would be quite nice. It'd be even better if it included little summary windows of what's currently up in the other two design screens, so that you don't have to keep clicking back and forth to refresh your memory of the missile's statistics or the turret's armor. Honestly, I think Aurora needs this.
- To add to my currently existing asteroid miner Task Groups, I build mining vessels and initially store them in a temporary Task Group so I can move them to where my other mining vessels are and then combine the two groups. This process is really clunky, especially when various ships finish production at different times but I want them to go to work immediately. I can either make and delete Task Groups every time my ships are produced, or I can deal with a "This Task Group Is Not Currently Located At This Planet" message every time I try to build a ship into my Temporary Task Group.
-- Either the F12 menu needs to be streamlined (but I have no real ideas how)
or
-- You could do away with empty Task Groups having any set location. If the Task Group is empty, it should not have a defined location, and should not be giving me confirmation messages every time I want my shipyards to construct new vessels into that Task Group. I would like to see this change.
